Engage Don’t Describe!

The fun in marketing for the consumer is about engagement, and today that’s more than “liking” a Facebook post or commenting on a post. Consumers expect entertainment, relevance, and capturing their interest—otherwise you are sending out noise.

Walking down the street we are bombarded with signs, listening to noise, and nothing sticks—unless you make it remarkable. Sure, the first place to make your business remarkable is with remarkable customer service.

The second place is to create BUZZ.

Watch this video and see how some businesses are creating real buzz. It’s a video showcasing the wide range of innovative advertising solutions that JCDecaux offers across the world.
Original Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC3gmB0aZ1E

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What Are Your Three Most Important Strategic Messages?

The three most important questions you can ask.

I can’t begin to tell you how many for-profit and nonprofit businesses I have worked with that can’t answer that one simple question. Nine times out of ten I will get one answer from the CEO, a different answer from the CFO, an entirely different answer from each person in marketing, etc.

Forget outside research. Here’s the most important poll you can do: Run a poll with every employee (and volunteer if you are a nonprofit) and ask the question: “What are our three most important strategic messages?” I bet you’ll be shocked at the answers you get.

The solution? Start at home. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Every meeting, every internal message, repeat the three key strategic messages until everyone gets it to the point where they believe in the messaging and can add their own stories to explain why those messages are so important.

Messaging doesn’t start with a brochure, or on Facebook, or in a newsletter. It starts with your entire staff and needs to be repeated until it’s a mantra.

(c) Joseph Barnes, http://www.Digital3000.Net

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If You Market: Content is King!

Here’s an important message for you: If you are in the public relations, marketing or advertising business at a company or organization, you need to be in the content-generation business.

People are tired of traditional ads. If they have TiVo or DVR’s, they are skipping through the ads. If you are buying print, broadcast or Internet ads ask yourself this: Is my ad truly remarkable? That is, will your ad truly get people to change their behavior? Sure if they are ordering something, but short of an online retail purchase, most ads are just that to consumers: An Advertisement.

If you really want to change behavior, change how you do things. YOU need to be in the content generation business. People read interesting stories. If you start an interesting and relevant story in an email newsletter or on Facebook and link the rest to your website, they will click through as long as it is interesting and relevant.

Shoot interesting pictures your stakeholders care about. Shoot interesting videos — especially “How To..” videos your stakeholders care about. Give your stakeholders interesting and relevant tips and information THEY care about.

It’s not about the tools, it’s about how you use them. And if you are interesting and relevant, they will come.

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Yes You Can Buy America!

It’s True. In America you can buy a piece of almost anything these days as cities and schools look for new sources of revenue: the side of a bus, the walls of a high school gym, construction scaffolding, the bottom of a high school swimming pool, and yes…even signage at a parking lot.

As one person put it: You can’t fight city hall but you may be able to buy and ad on it!

Proponents say it’s good visibility. Opponents say it’s no place for junk food advertising.

Read the story here.

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This Is What People Want Right Now!

When it comes to marketing and advertising, this is what people want right now. Build your themes around these, and they will resonate with your customers:

• People want hope.
• People want a sense of community and connection. Help them do that.
• People will get behind a cause if they feel they can truly make a difference.
• People want to make a difference for one thing, not generalities. (Example: They are more likely to donate for something specific vs. an organization).
• They are open to bridging class divides (see the films that are popular right now).
• They are open to escape.
• They are open to parallels to the depression era and what was popular then.

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It’s All About the Experience in Marketing!

Gord Hotchkiss has some smart things to say when it comes to what we pay attention to and why. We all know we are…as he says…”assaulted” by thousands of bits of information a day. So how do you break through so your message truly registers with your target? It’s important to understand how the human brain works and what we, as humans, crave. For advertising to be effective, it has to compel us to pay attention and divert us from doing whatever we were doing. That’s a tall order. What works? Emotion. Emotion is powerful. When you connect with emotion, whether it’s in 30-seconds, 60-seconds, or a story—it’s powerful. It engages people.

There’s new research by ARF (The Advertising Research Foundation) showing just how powerful emotional engagement is and the power of “experiential marketing.” I urge you to read this. Digest this. And understand how to implement the findings.

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